Hindustan Times, published by HT Media Ltd, has emerged the most read English newspaper in Punjab with a readership of 2.68 lakh, higher than The Tribune’s 2.36 lakh and The Times of India’s 0.8 lakh.
Hindustan Times is also the most read in India’s two top markets in terms of advertising and number of readers of English papers, Delhi and Mumbai.
HT has 24.4 lakh readers in the two cities combined, as compared to The Times of India’s 23.5 lakh. HT is also the clear leader in Delhi and the National Capital Region with 16.2 lakh readers as compared to The Times of India’s 11.9 lakh. The latter is Mumbai’s top paper with 11.6 lakh readers as compared to HT’s 8.3 lakh.
The numbers clearly establish Hindustan Times as the biggest newspaper across Delhi and Mumbai, and also the biggest newspaper in Delhi-NCR.
The numbers are from the latest edition of the Indian Readership Survey, and are based on the so-called Average Issue Readership or AIR.
This metric is simply the number of people who claim to have read a publication within a time period equal to its periodicity. For newspapers, this is daily, and most advertisers therefore consider AIR as regular readership and the best measure of the readership of a publication.
The numbers are not comparable to those from previous editions of the Indian Readership Survey because the methodology used was completely revised. HT Media’s other English language publication, business newspaper Mint, retained its position as the clear No.2 in the market with an average issue readership of 2.39 lakh.
The Hindu Business Line has a readership of 1.48 lakh and The Business Standard. 1.07 lakh. The Economic Times is the top business publication with a readership of 8.82 lakh. Hindi daily Hindustan, published by HT Media Ltd subsidiary Hindustan Media Ventures Ltd emerged the top paper in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Uttarakhand and the second most read paper in Uttar Pradesh. Across these four markets, which constitute India’s Hindi heartland, it has a readership of 1.7 crore.
